Pakistan would be the first country in South Asia having e-marking system in the examinations to be conducted by Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB) from 2006, which would ensure not only transparency but also help compile results within less than six week.
According to Dr Thomas Christie, Director Examination Board of AKU, with the commitment to turn the examinations more reliable, transparent, efficient and secure, AKU-EB offers technology supported Examination Processing System (EPS), which provides electronic registration of students, online access for various activities under examination services and automated preparation of results.
The Board is introducing the system of e-marking for marking the answer scripts on the candidates. It would be new system introduced first time ever in South Asia, which would streamline the entire examination system, he maintained.
"Under the system, the solved scripts of any students of any paper can be seen on the Board's website.
The e-marking system has been designed on the pattern, what being followed in the European countries. This system was designed after reviewing 30 reports so far compiled on the examination system in Pakistan, which revealed that existing system is only based on rote learning," he added.
Talking about the other features of the system, he said that the examiner could not identify the candidate, while the digital images of the answer scripts would be taken and stored electronically. "Besides, the examiner/marker of the answer sheets would do online marking and scrutiny of the results would also be done electronically.
The statistical analysis carried out through various analysis software to report to the schools about individual performance of candidates even against one question," he maintained. When asked whether the system can be replicated in other boards and universities working in the public sector, Dr Christie said that yes, he has already asked Chairman National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) for co-operation do develop system for public sector boards.
According to him, each script would have 16A4 sides for constructed response questions (CRQ). In addition, there would be a separate A4 size answers sheet to answer 30-40 multiple choice questions (MCQ).
AKU-EB would arrange for the printing of CRQ and MCQ exams scripts from a suitable printer. Each CRQ script is slated to be customised at the time of printing to bear the student name and ID, Center ID, subject paper ID and page number in the form of bar codes. The MCQ answer sheet would be a standard one without any customisation and would be identified by the students ID, marked by the respective student on an OMR readable section in the answer sheet.
Dr Thomas Christie averred, "the student registration database will be provided to the selected EPS vendor and no software for student registration is to be provided to the AKU-EB."
The scanned script images would be placed on a secure EPS server and would be made available to the AKU-EB for subsequent e-marking. The vendor's remote EPS server would be securely accessed by AKU-EB marking centers located in Pakistan, over the internet via VPN access on a 24/7 basis during the marking period. The EPS server would be running the e-marking server-side software. The vendor would quote this service on a reasonable basis, such as days/data/volume/license usage duration or some suitable combination.
The data would need to be kept accessible on a live basis for certain period. After which it would be archived and made available to the AKU-EB on archival media, such as an Ultrium 2 tape. Data will be purged only after AKU-EB confirmation in writing that it has been able to successfully retrieve the data from the tape.
"The vendor will also need to provide the AKU-EB with the software to read data from the tape and accumulate the archive on its won local server in a standard database such as Microsoft SQL," he added.
According to him, the AKU-EB will provide a list of scripts to be returned to it after scanning. Scripts not thus returned will need to be physically destroyed at the vendor processing side, six months after the marking exercise has been completed and on written instructions, AKU-EB may elect to supervise the script shredding process.
To a question, Dr Christie said that the AKU-EB has target of 70 institutes to be affiliated with the EB but we have so far affiliated 130 institutes. However, he refused to provide details of those institutes saying that they could face threat from some elements.
He further said that EB would only design and offer examinations for the National Curriculum approved by the government of Pakistan. "It would also provide high quality SSC and HSC examinations both English and Urdu medium schools. It would also train teachers and develop supplementary learning materials in support of the national curriculum for secondary and higher education," he added.
About teachers training programme, he said that the AKU-EB intends to serve as a model of internationally recognised good practice in order to enhance the country's capacity for educational assessment and test. Focusing on this aspect, the EB has developed its own teachers training programme and has imparted training to 802 teachers across the country.
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